Tuesday, June 29, 2010

When something as big as the next edition of Windows is in the making and involves hundreds - probably thousands - of developers, information leaks are inevitable.

One Microsoft Journal blog owned by Francisco Martin Garcia, a Microsoft VIP tester, got hold of several slides stamped "Microsoft Confidential" that discuss key features of the next operating system. The slides, purported to be for hardware manufactures, reveals some key points:

Facial recognition: A Windows computer will know who is using it based on facial recognition technology.

Fast start time: Microsoft wants Windows 8 devices to be fast to start. The goal, according to the information, is that slates and laptops would be able to resume from sleep in less than a second.

Better displays, more integration: Windows 8 will support 3D media, and it will work with wireless TV sets.

One particular slide titled "How Apple Does It: A Virtuous Cycle," talks about the need for simplicity in design.

Another enthusiastic Microsoft site MSFTKitchen has even more slides posted. Some of these slides reveals details for a Windows Store, where consumers could go to directly buy PC software

and details on Internet Explorer 9 release timeline.

Another interesting feature is a so-called "Push-Button Reset" that would essentially reinstall Windows while maintaining all of your personal files, applications, settings, etc. without the need for the user to back all of that stuff up.